The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an emergency criminal law enacted by the Governor-General of India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities during and after the First World War. It was similar to that of the British Defence of the Realm Acts, and granted the Executive very wide powers of preventive detention, internment without trial, restriction of writing, speech, and of movement. Lord Carmichael sought to have the provisions of the war time Defence of India Act used against the Tadar Movement in Punjab in 1915 , maintained in peace time also.